Poetry Rhyme and Rhythm Worksheet - Free Printable

Let’s work through this step by step.

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Step 1: Understand the poem

The poem is about ice cream and has 8 lines total, split into two stanzas (groups of 4 lines).

Stanza 1:
1. Frozen ice cream in a cone,
2. fun with my friends, or alone.
3. Cold and icy, sweet and creamy,
4. on a hot day that is steamy.

Stanza 2:
5. Sun is shining, my ice cream drips,
6. melts down my arm and to my hips.
7. Lick it quickly, round and round.
8. Never let it hit the ground.

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Step 2: Answer Question 1 — Rhythm and Beats

“Beats” here means stressed syllables — the strong parts when you read aloud.

Let’s count beats per line:

Line 1: “Frozen ice cream in a cone” → FRO-zen ICE cream IN a CONE → 4 beats
Line 2: “fun with my friends, or alone” → FUN with MY friends, or a-LONE → 4 beats
Line 3: “Cold and icy, sweet and creamy” → COLD and I-cy, SWEET and CREA-my → 4 beats
Line 4: “on a hot day that is steamy” → on a HOT day THAT is STEA-my → 4 beats
Line 5: “Sun is shining, my ice cream drips” → SUN is SHIN-ing, my ICE cream DRIPS → 4 beats
Line 6: “melts down my arm and to my hips” → MELTS down MY ARM and TO my HIPS → 4 beats
Line 7: “Lick it quickly, round and round” → LICK it QUICK-ly, ROUND and ROUND → 4 beats
Line 8: “Never let it hit the ground” → NE-ver LET it HIT the GROUND → 4 beats

✔ All lines have 4 beats.

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Step 3: Answer Question 2 — Rhyming Words

Look at the end of each line:

Line 1: cone
Line 2: alone → rhymes with cone
Line 3: creamy
Line 4: steamy → rhymes with creamy
Line 5: drips
Line 6: hips → rhymes with drips
Line 7: round
Line 8: ground → rhymes with round

So the rhyming pairs are:
- cone / alone
- creamy / steamy
- drips / hips
- round / ground

We need to fill in 4 boxes — so we’ll list each pair.

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Step 4: Answer Question 3 — Write the Next Stanza

This is creative! We should try to keep the same rhythm (4 beats per line) and rhyme scheme (AABB for each stanza).

Example next stanza:

I eat it fast before it’s gone,
Taste the sugar, taste the dawn.
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry too,
My favorite treat — I’ll eat some more!

(You can write your own — just make sure it rhymes and has 4 lines with 4 beats each.)

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Final Answer:

1. Yes, there is rhythm. Each line has 4 beats.
line 1: 4
line 2: 4
line 3: 4
line 4: 4
line 5: 4
line 6: 4
line 7: 4
line 8: 4

2. Rhyming words:
cone – alone
creamy – steamy
drips – hips
round – ground

3. Example next stanza:
I eat it fast before it’s gone,
Taste the sugar, taste the dawn.
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry too,
My favorite treat — I’ll eat some more!